New to the forum and really enjoy how nice everone is to each other! A group including myself and two friends are embarking on Wednesday morning, July 13th from the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead. We'll be carrying ice axes and crampons, and 2 of the 3 have experience in using them. We're planning to mozy over to Guitar Lake, maybe summit Langley en route, summit Whitney, and exit down to Whitney Portal. We plan to be out for 7 days and we'll be playing our hiking days be ear (as in don't have daily goals mapped out yet). Any information on trail conditions or advice would be greatly appreciated; especially: 1) New Army Pass: someone at the Lone Pine Ranger station told me people have been making it by climbing off trail a bit south of the pass; 2) Guitar Lake to the summit: haven't seen anyone on this site describe conditions on this stretch this year; 3) Whitney summit to trail camp: I have experience down climbing and glissading steep snow on Mt. Shasta, but I've never down-climbed snow that I haven't ascended. Any advice on finding the route down the chute to Trail camp might provide some peace of mind. I have been to the summit and down the switchbacks but that was 3 or 4 years ago in August and snow was not an issue; 4) Langley: rock, snow, or mixed from New Army Pass. 5) Any creek crossings we should play special attention to?
thanks!
